Transparent Hands playing its part in flood relief

Severe flooding in the country’s recent history has washed away villages and affected over 33 million people. Over 1,400 people have lost their lives and over 2,000 people, including women and children, have been reported injured. Diseases and starvation follow the catastrophe. Estimates suggest that the natural calamity has caused over $20 billion loss to economy.

National and international humanitarian organisations are trying their best to reach out to flood victims to provide them with shelter, food and medicines. Like other organisations, Transparent Hands, the largest online crowdfunding platform in Pakistan’s healthcare sector, has been arranging free medical camps and food supplies in the most affected areas of the country.

It has arranged over 150 free medical camps and provided over 55,000 surgical and medical treatments to deserving patients in the most impoverished areas since 2014.

The organisation is now focusing on helping flood victims in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and South Punjab with free medical care and food supplies. It is challenging for a lot of overseas donors, who want to help flood affectees in Pakistan, to find the most effective ways to contribute towards relief efforts. The organisation has made easier for them to contribute via multiple easy online payment modes with complete transparency. This way, donations can reach the flood victims within hours.

An increasing number of reports of diseases like diarrhea and skin infections are emerging from various flood-affected areas. The prevalence of diseases is expected to increase in the coming days. What makes matters worse for the flood victims is that they don’t have access to healthcare facilities and have been deprived of their livelihoods. As part of flood relief efforts, the organisation is ensuring the affectees receive first aid, consultations and multiple diagnostic tests, including BSR and blood pressure checkups, uric acid and hemoglobin tests and hepatitis screenings free of charge. The medical teams of Transparent Hands are also distributing a wide range of medicines like pyodine, antibiotics, antimalarials, bandages, antipyretics, analgesics, anti-inflammatory drugs, eye drops, ear drops and multivitamins among the flood victims.

Since millions of affectees, including women and children, are starving for lack of food in the flood-affected areas, it has also launched a food distribution programme. Thousands of food packs are being handed out at 28 flood relief camps. Each food pack contains all the essentials a flood-affected family needs to survive.

The organisation’s medical camps and food distribution programme are helping 100,000 flood affectees in Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Taunsa Sharif, Muzaffargarh, Balakot, Dadu, Daur, Nowshera, Charsadda, Khairpur, Kotri, Larkana and Mirpur Khas.

A team of over 100 volunteers and staff members, including male and female doctors, nurses and pharmacists, are carrying out these flood relief efforts. It has already spent over millions of rupees of funds on these flood relief activities raised through online crowdfunding platform.

This is just the first phase of the organisation’s plan to help millions of flood victims recover from flood devastations caused while it aims to arrange even more flood relief camps in the coming weeks. —Maryam Nafees